


In the Flesh

by Kyni, OrphielBurrito



Series: Of time and universes [13]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Multi, Science Experiments, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-02-27 20:44:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 8,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13256265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyni/pseuds/Kyni, https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrphielBurrito/pseuds/OrphielBurrito
Summary: The Fourth Universe's Theta just found out that his friend Koschei has been replaced by a Flesh clone. The two set out to retrieve the original Koschei by stealing the Master's ship - enrolling the Doctor's and the Master's help in this dangerous endeavour. With Clara Oswald by their side, the team should be able to manage this rescue mission... but everything is about to get a lot more complicated.





	1. Earth Girl and former Prime Minister

The blue box flew over the battlefield, skillfully avoiding shots fired by the Daleks, almost dancing in the lights of lasers that were trying in vain to harm her.

Inside, the Doctor was clinging to the control panel, most of their hair set aflame and pushing levers in a way that did seem very much like they were improvising the whole thing. They probably were. Clara had decided to stop trying to figure out anything when it came to that Doctor.

She had consented to come back with them for an adventure when they showed up at Vastra's door, looking like they'd been through hell and back, telling her they wanted to make it up to her. Truthfully, a part of her may have hoped that whatever had been going on with their previous self would... continue, change, something. But it was like facing an entirely different person who was still the same one and it was too confusing, even for the Impossible Girl.

Admittedly, this Doctor was more bearable than the one she'd known. There was no ambiguity at all, for a start, in any way. They knew what she was and what she had done for them, they were grateful and aware of the fact that they'd messed up and did some unforgivable things, and they were quite obviously thinking of someone else. She wasn't a mystery to them anymore – nor was she a mystery in an attractive short skirt. She was just Clara. And she would have to learn how to deal with that.

She was in the middle of suggesting a trip when the Doctor had received a message on their ship's screen which prompted them to take off immediately without even telling her what was going on. She could just observe the battlefield underneath them through the screens and hope this mad person with a box wouldn't decide to land.

“Clara, stay away from the doors, I'm opening them!” announced the Doctor a millisecond before doing so. A cord ladder sprang out of the door and shortly after, a silhouette dragged itself onto the TARDIS' floor.

Clara couldn't say who was the more flabbergasted: herself, clinging to a pillar and half praying for her life while still monitoring the activity downstairs to find out why exactly the Doctor had insisted on taking this trip, or Former Prime Minister Harold Saxon.

  
  


“Did you _really_ go find yourself an Earth girl the very second I left, Doctor?” growled said Harold Saxon – at the void, since the Doctor had decided to escape somewhere deep in their ship. Very brave. He groaned and went to the console to stabilize the ship, much to Clara's relief.

“Better have an Earth girl than a murdering psycho,” she replied, taking advantage of the fact she could finally stand as tall as her minuscule height would allow her. “You're the Master.

\- Yes, I am. Bravo! Do you want a reward for finding out?”

Clara rolled her eyes and left in the search for the Doctor, leaving the Master alone with the console. In other circumstances, that would probably have been a terrible choice, but Sexy went so far as to vworp softly for the Master's benefit. She liked him better than she liked the Earth girl. Impressive.

“Did you miss me, dearie?” asked the Master with a smirk.

“ _Not you. Lucky._

\- Well, that's why I'm here. Don't worry, we're getting him back.” And soon, hopefully. “Thank you for rescuing me.

\- _Not for you. For Lucky._

 _-_ Yes, I got it the first time.”

Truth was, he was indeed grateful, not that he would admit it. Both for the Doctor and their ship. He had been in the middle of a Dalek war field, running towards his ship to escape the terrible situation he'd put himself in and hoping for a few days in his medbay to repair the damage done to his already half-dead body, when he had seen Lucky dematerialize in front of his eyes. His ship must have contacted Sexy and warned her of what was going on, for it didn't take very long for the Doctor to appear.

The two Time Lords hadn't met since they had returned from the Fourth Universe, both agreeing on the fact that they needed some time apart – and the Doctor had made it clear that if they were to learn that the Master had engaged in some reprehensible activities, they would retaliate. The Master wisely made sure that they could never hear of anything of the sort; not by _not doing it_ but by being very discrete.

And now they had rescued him and he had to share their attention with an Earth girl, all of that while figuring out where Lucky had gone. Well, that was going to be _fun._

  
  


 


	2. Little Miss Sunshine

“I couldn't find the Doctor,” announced Clara as she came back to the console room, a pout on her face.

“They're probably in the swimming pool or buried deep in their library,” replied the Master mindlessly, busy with looking through the scan results. “They'll show up when they're half certain that neither of us will try to argue with them.

\- Why did he rescue you?”

The Master's gaze landed on Clara for the entirety of two seconds. She felt it last half an eternity and kind of wished she could disappear underground. The weight of these brown eyes dusted with flickers of gold was difficult to bear and she remembered why she, along with many others, had voted for him back in the days. It hadn't just been the mind control, the beat of four, the shenanigans. Although she couldn't remember anything from his policy and promises, she still remembered the feeling in her stomach every time he'd appear on screen: a feeling that if he were in charge, nothing bad could happen. Of course, she'd been wrong along with all of Britain at the time; but she still thought he could have been a good leader, had he decided to play the game nicely. Not having a plan for the country didn't keep other arseholes from being elected, after all, and they too screwed up the whole country.

She thought all of that, and then she remembered who he was. The Master. She'd seen him a lot in the Doctor's timeline, always appearing uninvited, always standing so close to the Doctor. Never dying, never leaving. He was dangerous, he killed people, he destroyed civilizations if he could get away with it. Sure, he had a lot of charisma and a formidable strength – but he didn't exactly use all of that for the best of purposes.

“ _They_ rescued me because we're _friends,_ Impossible Girl.

\- I can hardly believe that. You're a monster.

\- An evil genius, my dear – semantics matter. And what's wrong with that? They're not exactly an angel themself,” smirked the Master, glancing at her once again over the controls. “Besides, I do not expect a human to be able to fathom the depth and intensity of a relationship between two –

\- When you are quite done measuring each other's worth and half screaming like rabid pigs,” interrupted the Doctor's soft voice, “we might need to figure out where Lucky is gone. Hello, Master, you look less dead than I expected.

\- Ever so pleasant, Doctor. How did you find me, anyway ?

\- Scanning. I have a special setting for you.”

The Doctor chuckled and the Master rolled their eyes at them. Clara observed the whole interaction, more than a bit confused as to what was going on between these two. She had seen the entirety of the Doctor's timeline or almost, but she had never gone too deep in their intimacy and all she had seen of their interactions with the Master was the surface. The trying to kill each other, the defeating each other, the scary plans and the grandiose battles. She had seen all that and she had seen them close and walking the same path more than once, but being privvy to the details for the first time felt more than a little uncomfortable – especially when the Doctor went right up to the Master to curl up in his arms.

_Friends._ Not so much, heh? The strange marks she'd seen on the Doctor's neck suddenly made more sense. They had pretended that it was all scars from a battle or another but she'd always been quite certain it was bitemarks. Bitemarks to show ownership of someone's body, to put one's mark on them, to warn anyone who'd want to approach them that they were already claimed – she'd seen that in her early twenties, when she was still experimenting with a lot of things. Although it felt odd to think that the Doctor would let someone downright  _mark_ them, she'd thought of that the very second she had seen the marks. She'd been right.

“This is so wrong,” she muttered.

“No, Little Miss Sunshine,” sighed the Master before planting a kiss on the Doctor's forehead, “it's not. When you're as old as we are, and you'll never be, you'll find it harder and harder to get some fun in your relationships. Trying to murder each other is a way to get that. Anyway, we're both grown-ups and we could both be your great-great-great-...-great-grandparents and we don't want any lecture from a little girl. Especially me. I don't want it.”

The Doctor didn't comment, letting out a sigh before extracting themself from the Master's embrace. Clara couldn't have guessed how touchy the subject was before she interjected and the time was definitely not right to go into depth about whatever this relationship was, but apparently, that couldn't be avoided. For the n-th time since their regeneration, they thought that this had all been a very big mistake – and now it was bound to become even worse. The Doctor would have much preferred to get to talk to the Master in private before he went into a competition with Clara, before the two started going at each other for different reasons. She was protective of them, something the Doctor barely understood after everything they'd done to her, because they couldn't fathom the idea that she'd still care and that after saving them from the Great Intelligence, she'd want them to survive so all her work wouldn't have been in vain. The Master was possessive and wanted to assert his ownership, even though the _ownership_ part of whatever this was had been the subject of heated debates in the past. It couldn't go well.

“Look, grandpa,” replied Clara, hands on her hips. “I lived a thousand lives and died a thousand times, so you could say I'm old enough. Remember when the Doctor stole the TARDIS? Was there, advised him on the right one to take. And know what? The one he... they wanted would have crashed within minutes. I saved them from you too. The weird girl appearing over and over and over again in their timeline? Yeah, that was me. Don't get too excited over your age and importance.”

The Doctor braced themself for the yelling and fighting that was about to start but, much to their surprise, the Master started laughing. And Clara smiled.

“You are quite interesting, Little Miss Sunshine, I like that. She can stay,” announced the Master before adjusting the commands.

“Not that _you_ would get a say in that _anyway,_ ” groaned the Doctor. “I scanned the whole universe, your ship isn't around. It means...

\- It means the kids have stolen it one way or the other. Well, I guess it's time to impress your guest.” The Master stared pointedly at the Doctor who was still standing right next to the console. “Not you, Doctor. I want to actually _survive_ the trip.”

Clara chuckled as the Doctor grumbled and took a step back from the controls to go sit with her.

“Your ship really _is_ a snogbox, in the end,” she commented before the Master took off.

 


	3. Bad at Genocide

“Didn't think you'd be that good,” commented Clara, astonished by how smooth the flight was even though they just crossed a Big Bang. “Doctor, how comes you don't fly like that?

\- They never passed the exam,” replied the Master. “Please, my dears, I need to focus. Stare at me with admiration all you want, but in silence.”

Much to Clara's surprise, the Doctor let out a sound that resembled a chuckle before turning away. They _were_ admiring him. Well, that was a first. She'd never seen them genuinely be impressed by anyone, not in this way. Usually, they were impressed by what others could do in the way parents were impressed that an infant could mutter three words, but this was different. They weren't looking at someone _inferior,_ at a monkey, playing with bananas and learning how to count, and being impressed by a feat they could easily reproduce. For the first time, Clara looked at the Doctor being genuinely amazed by someone who could do something they couldn't. She wished they would have that look in their eyes sometimes when looking at her, when looking at other humans. Although this Doctor seemed quite a bit better than the one she'd known in some regards, they were even more detached from humanity than hers. It made sense, in a way. If they had been living with the Master for a while, being exclusively with someone of their own species, they surely had forgotten what humans were like and how to behave around them. They reminded her a bit of their first self, the one that escaped Gallifrey with her help, who was still very much an alien and needed their human companions to make them almost tolerable. She just hoped they weren't as bad as they used to be.

“We're close,” announced the Doctor. “Look at the scans.

\- I've seen.”

Clara tried to figure out what the two Time Lords had seen and what made them seem so gloomy all of a sudden. Unfortunately, she still couldn't read Gallifreyan.

  
  


It seemed like the asteroid was completely deserted aside from the two ships and the five people on it. On one side stood Lucky, trying very hard to look like a big rock, a heavy cloud of smoke escaping his roof. Two children were standing in front of it. They looked about twenty years old but Clara could sense somehow that they were not – they were much older and still much younger than that. The tallest one had a very smooth face (maybe too smooth? Something was definitely _wrong_ with it), shoulder length brown hair, blue eyes that looked as if they were made of glass; the other one was athletic, his blonde hair combed back and wearing a leather jacket, looking very much like a modern James Dean. On the other side stood the TARDIS she knew and the Time Lords she thought she did.

“Thanks for coming,” said Koschei. “I'm sorry we stole your ship...

\- We had to,” interfered Theta. “There's trouble, we needed a way to travel fast.

\- Your face is weird,” commented the Master, staring as his alternate self.

“That you call anyone weird is a fucking paradox but yeah, his face is weird 'cause he's made of Flesh, and we're here to get the other Koschei back from whatever the fuck kidnapped him.”

_The other Koschei,_ noted the Doctor. Not the  _real_ Koschei. That was an interesting choice of words – perhaps they'd misjudged Theta, after all. Meanwhile, Koschei explained that they stole the Master's TARDIS using his – or the other Koschei's – connection to the Vortex inside Lucky and a remote-controlled emergency device that he'd planted in the ship before the Third Universe's Time Lords left. The kids had managed to pilot the ship on this asteroid which was the last place the Flesh Koschei could remember to rescue the Not Flesh Koschei. Impressive, to say the least, but the Doctor had never expected anything less from the kid. He was, after all, the Master's alternate self and as such, was bound to be brilliant in a way. 

“And do you have a plan?” asked Clara.

The Doctor and Theta replied in a perfect unison: “What for?”

  
  


“The scan found him,” announced the Doctor. Their voice was grim and their face not much lighter. They had consented to run a scan for Gallifreyan life forms before barging in all guns blazing, surrendering to Clara's and the Master's suggestion to be a little wise for once. “And there's bad news. Two other Gallifreyan life forms with him.

\- I thought we got them all?

\- Apparently not, grandpa,” grumbled Theta, leaning on the console to look at the scan results. “Seems like you're not so good at genocide in the end.

\- Stop calling me grandpa and we did it to  _protect_ you, kid, show some respect.

\- Oh, cause that's an excuse for exterminating an entire race of people now? Well, fuck.”

Clara and Flesh Koschei exchanged a glance, not too interested in taking part in the banter that was going on.

“Could you two stop bickering?” asked the Doctor, echoing what Clara and Koschei were thinking. “Two Gallifreyans, alive and well, underground, with the other Koschei. Doesn't that sound more important than catfight?

\- Yes, mom,” sighed Theta.

“I am going to ignore you from now on. Fine. So, these Gallifreyans... we don't know who it is but let's assume the worst. Usually, malevolence comes with cleverness, except in _some_ people who think plastic daffodils are an actual genius idea - 

\- It was a  _joke,_ Doctor. A  _joke._

\- And here we have someone who has access to Flesh, knows how to control it, knew where to find you, and seems to have quite a facility underneath the surface of this asteroid. I don't know about you, Master, but...

\- It does sound like her.”

The two children of time and Clara exchanged a look, unsure of who this  _her_ was – only certain that she seemed to scare the Doctor and the Master, and that was not good news.

 


	4. Pancakes

Flesh Koschei led the way down to a hidden entrance that he seemed to remember. Hidden entrance to what – excellent question. The Master and Theta both had their laser devices in hand, something the Doctor strongly disliked but that couldn't really be helped. Men and their weapons.

And Clara... Clara had followed, frying pan in hand, looking very much ready to fight. There was no point in keeping her back.

For a second or two, the Doctor considered their strange crew. A Koschei made of Flesh, terrified but leading the way, followed by a Theta who had gotten his style inspiration from  _Grease_ and thought very little of himself but was willing to do anything to protect those he cared about, Clara and her frying pan and this determined look on her face, and the Master. The Master, who kept on caring about these kids more than he'd ever care to admit. The Master who had welcomed the Doctor in his arms right after they rescued him, even though there were still many things to settle, many words to be said, fights to end.  _Their_ Master.

They were all warriors ready to fight. But unlike previous incarnations, this Doctor thought that maybe it wasn't too much of a bad thing. There was no wrong in fighting for what is right and what one believes in. Fighting for one's family. They trotted up to Clara and took her hand, squeezing it gently. A lot of wrongs had to be made right, and this was the occasion to start.

“These corridors remind me of labs,” whispered the Master who had joined the Doctor and Clara.

“I know,” they replied. “It _is_ her.

\- Who the fuck are you two talking 'bout?” This charming language was, of course, Theta. The Doctor groaned but didn't comment.

“The Rani. Ushas. She was with us at the Academy, a scientific genius, but...

\- We know her,” replied Flesh Koschei in a stern voice.

It had to be her. Who else? And that was certainly not good news. The Doctor was busy thinking of how to make this situation less tragic when Theta pushed them and the others in a room, frantically whispering about someone coming. A few seconds later, a guard passed their exact position. Good thing someone had been listening.

“Um, Doctor?” said Clara in a trembling voice. “I think we have a problem.”

A low hiss-growl coming from the presumed empty room came to confirm her assertion.

  
  


“Imma fry the things,” said Theta, pointing his laser probe at them.

“If you fry them, I got a pan, we can make pancakes!”

Theta and Clara smiled at each other, although it was obvious how terrified they were. No one in their right mind wouldn't have been.

Facing them was a crowd of what looked like... _zombies_. Bodies that were badly burnt, contorting at odd angles, without any hair on their skin and eyes bulging out. Their entire skin was covered in blisters and leaking a pale yellow fluid - where it didn't look like something that had been left on the stove for too long and turned out black and crisp. Some had lost most of their muscle and fluid mass, others suffered from deformations to the head and limbs, most had lost all of their teeth and parts of their bodies. They were crawling on the floor towards the five adventurers, hissing and growling and spitting, and everyone took a step back – except, of course, for the Doctor.

“Who did this to you?”

The only reply they got was a low hiss before one of the zombies threw itself at them, trying to bite their leg, while another had taken Koschei as a target. Two laser beams later, the two zombies were dissolved and Clara led the way back to the corridor while the Doctor was pondering whether or not to be angry at the Master for killing things without trying to communicate.

“I can smell him,” said Theta. “I can sense him in the air.”

His face showed how shocked he was to discover that for six entire years, he hadn't noticed the different scent on his roommate. His gaze briefly encountered Koschei's and he turned away, unable to stand looking at someone he couldn't quite consider an impostor. For six years, Flesh Koschei had been his Koschei. The Koschei he liked so much. The Koschei he missed. He was just as real as the other one, just different. A different person. But then, who was the original Koschei? In six years, he was bound to have changed a lot and Theta wondered if they could still be friends, if things would ever be the same. But of course they wouldn't, they _couldn't –_ maybe it wasn't that bad.

He shook his head and joined Clara at the lead of their little group. Hopefully, they would not meet any more zombies on the way.

 


	5. The Mastermind

The place they reached looked like a hangar of impossible proportions – and was crowded with a lot of different creatures fighting.  _Monsters,_ had grimaced Flesh Koschei, only to get told by a very stern Theta that the only monster was the person who did this to them. Not for the first time this day, the Doctor had looked at their alternate self with surprise and appreciation.

There were more zombies but also people, human beings and other sorts of humanoid aliens, most of them looking sick and close to death. There were animals too, animals that had been genetically manipulated to be a mix of different species – or maybe some sort of chimera, with the head of a dog sewn on the body of a bull. Some of them had even lost all kind of defining features and presented as some kind of shapeless blobs whose stench poisoned the air. All of the creatures were fighting each other and the chaos around was impossible to decipher, filled with loud noises of bitten flesh, limbs torn apart, blisters exploding and leaking ichor, screams of pain. Bodies were dropping on the floor, soon to be swept away by another fight.

“We should split,” continued Theta. “Kos and I, we go look for Kos and free other prisoners if there are any. You three, you go find the Mastermind behind all this. Go!”

He didn't give them any time to reply and dove head first into the fight, followed by Koschei. The Doctor looked at the two children leave with a gasp, their whole body tensed in their direction, as if the kids could be somehow kept safe and away from danger. Their Master grabbed their hand very gently, rubbing their palm with his thumb.  _They know what they're doing. Don't worry, “mom”._

The teasing word got the Doctor out of their trance and they cast the Master a dark glare before turning away.

  
  


“Hey, have you seen someone who looks just like my friend here?” asked Theta to everyone he encountered who looked capable of communicating in a language he understood. Most didn't reply, until a human girl told him yes, he was the one who freed her and the others, freed all of the _experiments._ The experiments? How fucked was that? And apparently, there was a child with him, a little girl. Just when Theta thought the whole situation couldn't get any fucking weirder, there was a child involved.

“You all should stop fighting,” said Koschei. “You have no chance of winning against the worst... uh... experiments. Follow me, I'll lead you out!”

Theta nodded in his direction, giving him two thumbs up to encourage him. Well, that was something, at least. Flesh Koschei disappeared, followed by a crowd of people who were still in possession of their faculties, leaving behind the worst of the _experiments_ and the zombies. Theta looked at the creatures he was facing and sighed. Getting out of this without killing anything would be hardcore but then again, he'd always wanted to be hardcore.

  
  


“No, no, NO! Why is this happening? Why are you all killing each other?”

The only person in what seemed to be the control room was a tiny girl with long auburn hair and brown skin in an obvious state of panic. The Doctor and the Master exchanged a glance. They had been right in thinking it was Ushas but clearly, she hadn't quite reached the point of being the Rani yet.

“And here we have an incompetent pressing a lot of buttons,” sighed the Doctor while approaching the girl. “At the risk of sounding cliché, you do tend to get burnt when you play with fire.

\- Shut up! I don't have time for you! I must prevent them from going out!

\- I'm afraid I can't let you do that until you have explained why, exactly, their getting out would be such a dreadful thing,” said the Doctor with a twist of the wrist. The violet light from their screwdriver blinked a few times, then the whole control panel turned off. The Master thought for himself that they had really improved this silly thing's functionality.

“They all carry deadly viruses, do you really want that free in the universe? Even the healthy looking ones, they've been infected. All of them. So if you don't want your precious universe to fall prey to an epidemic of gargantuan proportions, just piss off!”

Clara shivered as the Doctor's face went from mildly amused and annoyed at the same time to the mask of rage she'd learnt to fear. The sonic screwdriver blinked a few more times and the control panel reactivated, letting Ushas work on it – but the Doctor wasn't done.

“Lock them in, yes, my dear. But you _will_ fix this. I do hope you have antidotes for all of these diseases and if you do _not,_ I suggest you start working on it right away.”

Their voice was cold as a blizzard and Clara found herself tempted to huddle in a corner. They were so small, so frail, and yet their presence was suddenly filling the whole room and they were standing tall and big like a giant Sun, its burn conveyed by the glacier in their voice. Even the Master didn't dare to say anything. She certainly wouldn't.

But Ushas didn't know what was coming.

“I don't even know you, I'm not taking orders! This is my work and I'll do with it as I please. I've worked hard on the final strain of the virus. I'm not stopping for _you,_ whoever you are.

\- I am the Doctor and I am here to help. We've crossed a big bang to stop you. A little girl who does not know yet what she's doing with all her machines and manipulations, unable to fix her own mistakes. Now. The antidote ?”

Maybe, in the Third Universe, the girl would have been impressed. It so happened that her universe had never heard of the Doctor and that she was getting slightly fed up with being told what to do. She didn't reply and looked at the data showing up on her screen at an impressive pace in simplified gallifreyan, clenching her jaw, her face getting paler by the second.

“... She's gone! You will pay for this mess!”

And the way she was intending to make the Doctor pay became clear when she pressed a gun on their forehead.

 


	6. Bitten

Theta found the other Koschei, the one he'd grown up with, fighting (with guns, a rather unexpected sight) a herd of genetically engineered dogs while protecting a little girl. She looked about eight years old, with red hair and freckles, and terrified. Understandably. As for him, he hadn't changed and looked eerily like his Flesh counterpart, save for the scars on his face and the scowl he made at the dogs.

“You're a bit late, Prince Charming,” said Koschei while blowing up the last dog's head.

“Got held up by my white horse, sorry, he had diarrhea. C'mon, let's get out of here! The Master and the Doctor are taking care of the head of this place.

\- No!” Koschei's cry surprised Theta, who turned back around to look at him. His friend was holding the little girl close to him and a gun in his free hand. “They can't do that, they gotta leave her alone. It's Ushas...

\- I don't give a shit if it's Ushas or the Queen of motherfucking England, we're getting out and handling this crap, and if you don't like it I can punch you in your pretty face and drag you and your girl out of it, ok?”

Koschei thought it best not to reply and followed Theta out, the little girl still clinging to him. Escaping. Escaping was a good idea, at least for now – but then one of the dogs, using its last speckle of life, jumped at him and made him fall and let go of the girl.

“Shit! Aetherea! Theta, cover your ears!”

Theta didn't take time to think before obeying. The little girl screamed, a high pitched scream that made him feel like someone was twisting his gut, and he fell to his knees. Luckily, the sound was enough to knock out the dogs, giving Theta and Koschei a bit more time to gather their thoughts. Koschei had crawled to Aetherea and was cuddling her, holding her tight, shushing her, caressing her hair. Like a father with his daughter.

At least, she was calming down and her screaming was replaced by gentle sobbing.

“I'll explain later,” said Koschei while pulling himself back up. “Let's go.”

Theta obeyed, his ears ringing, feeling dizzy and a migraine pounding behind his forehead. That could be taken care of later.

The two kids ran without encountering much resistance and finally reached the exit. Theta let out a cry of victory, punching up the sky, letting out a few choice words – before realizing that the other Koschei was nowhere to be seen. Shit. Fuck. Shit.

“Where are you going?” asked Koschei.

“Looking for plastic you. Shit, fuck! Kos? Where are you, you fucking dickhead?”

Koschei didn't reply, thinking he wasn't the one that Theta was calling. He did his best to keep Aetherea quiet instead. It had been a hard day for her too since he had woken up and regained his whole abilities. He'd been kept in an artificial sleep for so long that he barely knew what was going on and still had trouble standing up but one thing was certain, he had to protect that little girl. There wasn't much to do other than following Theta, shushing the girl, and hoping for the best.

They finally reached the other Koschei, laying against a rock, visibly exhausted. Theta rushed to his side and put a hand on his forehead, visibly worried.

“What's going on?

\- I got bitten,” replied Flesh Koschei, showing his arm that was slowly melting. “I'm... returning to Flesh. I think. It's ok. I saved the people. And you got real me back.

\- Fucking  _hell_ no! There's gotta be an antidote! I'm going back!”

And before either Koschei could stop him, Theta had jumped back into the underground lab.

  
  


 


	7. You can have my name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um, so, it seems I have forgotten to publish new chapters for a while. Thank you for putting up with my inconsistency! This one is short - but you're getting another one soon.

The antidote. Gotta find the antidote. Not gonna let other Koschei die. No one's fucking gonna die today! Sure, Theta had promised himself he wouldn't kill, wouldn't destroy. That he would be a builder. Then again, you can build really neat temples out of bones and corpses. But that wasn't gonna be it. He would save people, help them, not the way the Doctor did. Never that way.

Speaking of the devil – the Doctor, the Master and Clara were just exiting Ushas' office. Behind them, Theta could see Ushas, laying on the ground unconscious.

“The fuck happened to her?”

Clara just showed her frying pan as an answer. What a girl.

“How did you get back inside?” frowned the Doctor. “We locked the doors.

\- Laser probe. Can open any door or, more accurately, put holes in them.”

The Doctor rubbed their temples, looking very tired.

“And where is Koschei?

\- The two Koscheis are outside, with the girl. But the Flesh one is dying. I need the fucking antidote to whatever fucking disease has made them all like this.

\- That's the thing,” interfered the Master. “If I were to engineer such a place and create diseases, which I would _obviously_ never do and never did, I would put the antidote somewhere inconspicuous. In a living being, for example. I think Koschei has the cure in his blood.”

  
  


“Hey, bro,” smiled Flesh Koschei. “Since you're the real thing, I thought you could give me a name? I used yours for a while, don't got one of my own...

\- You look ill,” said the little girl, sitting next to Flesh Koschei. “Are you gonna die?”

The two Koscheis exchanged a look. How could they possibly tell her? Yes, he was going to die. The bite on his arm was slowly but surely dissolving him. But she seemed to understand and her little fingers were caressing Flesh Koschei's cheeks, so as to accompany him for his last trip.

The other Koschei sat beside his clone and took his hand.

“You can have my name.”

  
  


“In his blood? It's fucking crazy!” Theta walked around, upset and agitated. “He doesn't have enough blood to help all of these people. We don't have time to extract whatever's in there, do we? I wanna save this motherfucker, not fucking drain him of his blood!

\- If there is the right equipment around, and I do not doubt there is, and the right scientists... then we can do something,” said the Doctor.

They hadn't expected Theta to come up to them and seize them by the collar, nearly spitting in their face. “Then fucking go.”

  
  


 


	8. Eggs and bakey

“I found the lab and the scientists are dead,” said the Master in a sing-song voice.

The biochemistry lab was indeed in a dire state. All of the scientists that had obviously tried to escape when Koschei had broken the experiments out of their cages had all succumbed one way or the other. Theta had rushed out to get the two Koscheis and the little girl; luckily he didn't have to see this – or the disheartened expression on the Doctor's face. Brave as he was, he was still but a kid and didn't need to be shown such a gory battlefield or the Doctor's lack of hope. No scientists. At least the lab and the facilities were still mostly intact but the Doctor wasn't quite confident that they could make it. They would have to try.

“Alright. Alright, fine. Master, I need an erlenmeyer, a Bunsen beak, a magnetic agitator, a microscope, a -

\- I know, my dear, I can do science too,” sneered the Master while getting everything that they needed. “Little Miss Sunshine, can you take care of Ushas? If she wakes up...

\- Frying pan in her face again. Got it!”

Clara ran away to the office, leaving the two Time Lords to their own device. Soon enough, the two Koscheis, Aetherea and a very gloomy Theta came into the lab. Original Flavour Koschei immediately shielded the child from viewing the corpses still laying on the floor and Theta turned away, trying not to puke.

“It's not Koschei,” announced the latter. “It's the girl.”

The Master and the Doctor ceased their frenetic agitation at once and stared at Aetherea, then at Theta. The girl?

“She's my daughter,” explained Original Flavour Koschei with a sigh. “Mine and Ushas'. Genetically engineered with both our DNA to create a... I don't know what exactly. But she has the antidote in her blood.” He sighed and tightened his embrace around the terrified little girl. “It's just a blood sample, honey, ok? You're very brave. You're gonna be fine. It's just a sample. This is the Doctor and the Master, they're friends, they'll help. You gonna be ok?”

The little girl nodded, fighting back tears.

  


“Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey,” sang Clara when Ushas woke up, just before slamming the frying pan in her head again – or trying.

“Oh no bitch, you won't do that to me _twice,”_ growled the scientist. She pushed Clara away and jumped at her, trying to pry the pan away from her. 

“I got a frying pan and you don't!

\- And I got something better.”

Ushas smirked and bit Clara at the neck, drawing blood.

  


“You're the bravest of them all,” smiled the Doctor at the girl, silently wishing that Rory was still here. Rory was a nurse, he knew how to do this calming thing. Clearly, they weren't quite equipped for that and neither was the Master. As for Theta, he was busy cajoling the Flesh Koschei, making him promise to survive over and over again. Original Flavour Koschei was trying to help Aetherea feel better, to no avail.

They heard Clara scream and without missing a beat, the Master departed to figure out what was going on. There was just so much the Doctor could deal with at one time. Draw blood, without hurting the kid, without scaring her. Analyze the blood. Isolate the molecule. Reproduce it. They hadn't forgotten how to do all that, despite the equipment in this lab being far less advanced than the one they were used to.

Original Flavour Koschei cuddled Aetherea, congratulating her for being so brave. He almost jumped when Theta wrapped an arm around him and drew the pair in a hug, Flesh Koschei curled up with him on the other side.

“We're gonna get through this,” he promised in a breath full of fire.

  


“Doctor, we have a problem,” stated the Master when he entered the lab, carrying Clara in his arms.

“Don't tell me she's been infected, Master. Just don't.

\- Your wish is my command.”

His cheeky comment only got him a dark glare and he laid Clara down as comfortably as possible on a table. She was covered in sweat.

“Am I gonna hallucinate? Could be fun. I could hallucinate about plastic daffodils.

\- Yes, Little Miss Sunshine, do that. But please keep talking,” ordered the Master. “Tell me all about your pathetic human life.”

While she got angry at him for his words and went on a rant about the value of human life, his eyes met the Doctor's. There wasn't much time left.


	9. Decision making

  


“I'm done,” announced the Doctor, showing a vial containing a transparent fluid. “But I need to test it first, we don't know the effects it could have. If I messed up...

\- Try it on Ushas,” suggested the Master. “She's knocked out in her office.

\- Not a chance. She's still a child.

\- Then try it on me,” offered Theta, standing up tall. “Best case scenario, it works and gets in my blood and I got more than the kid so maybe we can make more of the antidote faster. Worst case scenario, the least important person in this room dies.

\- Fuck no!” Koschei yelled, though at this point it was difficult to say which Koschei. “I'll try it, and you haven't even been infected anyway!”

He had a point. But that got Theta thinking: had Original Flavour Koschei been infected too and if yes, why was the disease acting so differently in him than in others? Why wasn't he turning into a zombie? Surely this had to do with Gallifreyan biology, which meant that Ushas’ plans may have been even more nefarious than he’d thought beforehand. That, however, was a concern for later.

Clara muttered something about plastic daffodils and ice cream and wanting to try it, only to be shut up by Theta. The Master tried to roar above the noise that had risen in the room and the Doctor contemplated the scene, sadness in their hearts. This was it, again. People offering to sacrifice themselves, people willing to offer their lives for others. Would it have to go on and on forever? Would it have to be like that until the end? They were just children, all of them, with the exception of the Master – and there was no way in hell they would let the Master take the risk. Oh, he would survive, of course. He survived everything. But in which state? He was already close to his death, after all.

So, as the others were fighting, the Doctor took a syringe and extracted the contents of the vial. Drew a cut in their arm and put some of Clara's saliva in, feeling the infection spread at a remarkable pace. They were already learning a lot about the virus that Ushas had mentioned: it reacted very differently in humans and Gallifreyans, which was expected, and for all that they could tell, came with an intense fever immediately after the infection. They wiped their forehead of the sweat that had started pearling on their skin.

And then stabbed themself in the thigh with the syringe.

  


  



	10. If you survive this

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO?”

That was the Master, screaming at the top of his lungs, throwing the syringe away from the Doctor. Too late. It was too late. The imbecile! They were the only one in the room who could synthetize the antidote, the only one who could actually save the situation, and they'd just risked their life again. It wasn't even their usual self-aggrandizing attempt at sacrificing their own life to be better than anyone else. For the first time, it was just Theta-Sigma, trying to save the people they cared about.

The Master wasn't having any of it. If the Doctor died, it wouldn't be that day, in that lab, because they did something stupid. Sure, saving people was their thing; it wasn't his. He didn't care about _people._

“Calm down, Master, even if something happens, I have time before I die.

\- ARE YOU MOTHERFUCKING CRAZY?” Theta yelled, retreating to the two Koscheis, to hold them against him.

“Is this news to you, my dear child? Well, well. Master, would you please be so kind as to hand me a notebook and a pen, so that I can document the evolution of the remedy in my body?

\- If you survive this, I will kill you,” growled the Master.

They only smiled at him and got up to take the notebook and the pen, since nobody seemed willing to help – only to fall to their knees and knock over a few tools in the process. One millisecond later, the Master was at their side, holding them tight and keeping them from hurting themself.

“Don't you dare die on me like this.

\- I  _knew_ you were more worried than angry,” smirked the Doctor. They caressed his cheek softly, letting their telepathic connection show a bit more than usual – show him a fraction of how much they cared. They could see him biting his tongue and fighting back tears. That was a small victory. “But I'm not dying. I'm healing, because I'm a genius. Downside is... well... side effects.”

The side-effects in question seemed to be a total loss of muscular power and soon they rested in the Master's arms, unable to move a limb. But alive. Very much alive. Theta was about to bounce in victory when the door opened and Aetherea let out a cry of surprise.

The ones of the little party who were still capable of doing so turned towards the door and faced Ushas, holding her daughter close with one hand and a gun in the other, a ferocious smile on her face.

“Now if you'll excuse me, I'll take my daughter and leave. Shouldn't have hit me so hard: I seem to have lost my mind and opened all of the remaining cages in the process. Good luck!”

Before anyone could have done anything to stop her, she ran away, despite Aetherea's pleas to let her go.

  


Theta and Original Flavour Koschei had jumped after her, running as fast as they could. Flesh Koschei wanted to follow but could not focus on being bipedal anymore, Clara was passed out, and the Master was doing his very best to save the Doctor and everyone else in the process. Again.

The two children of time reached the top of the stairs leading out of the facility to find Ushas pushing Aetherea in her ship. She turned towards them and bared her teeth, like an animal ready to attack.

“Ushas, don't take her,” pleaded Koschei. “Please, she's just a kid!

\- She's a scientific experiment. Don't get too attached,” retorted Ushas before lunging at him with the obvious intent to bite.

That she didn't succeed – but she did manage to push him down the stairs, and when he reached the bottom, Theta could hear something crack.

“Hey, doll,” he said to Ushas, trying to calm the anger in his voice. “How 'bout you stop this bullshit? My friends have found a cure. We could give some to you.

\- Why would I want a cure? I designed this virus for war purposes. The one I carry is going to make me invincible. You and your little friends, on the other end – well, you're all gonna die. Have fun!”

And with that, she disappeared.


	11. The elephant in the room

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this, this part is over. I have been made aware by some readers (MW I'm talking about you) that I'm infuriatingly slow to publish and that I leave many questions unanswered. Answers will come, eventually. And yes, I'm a terrible person. So is Kyni. And you haven't seen half of it. :D

The cage situation took a while to handle, but the Master had never actually stopped being an evil genius and the Doctor did not question how exactly all of the specimens had disappeared or where they went. Flesh Koschei and Clara were healing after being injected with the cure that the Master had extracted from the Doctor's blood, following the same process they had used with Aetherea's – but Flesh Koschei seemed to react to the Time Lord DNA present in the cure. That would be a problem for later.

The Master left the three infected people in the lab and dashed out to check on Original Flavour Koschei and Theta. He found the kids at the bottom of the stairs, Koschei's body bent at awkward angles and his friend's face covered in tears.

“What do we do now?” sobbed Theta. “What the fuck do we do?

\- Calm down. He's gonna regenerate. You can do that, right? You looked into the Vortex. Not as good as getting your Nucleus, but you got it.”

Koschei stared at the Master for a moment then nodded slowly. Regenerating. He had never actually thought he would need to do it, not so soon anyway. But the golden light was rising and he could feel his bones shifting, his muscles tensing and relaxing at an odd rhythm, his heartbeats accelerating. Changing.

Theta closed his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks, held away from Koschei by the Master. When he looked at his friend again, he let out a gasp.

“That's worse than anything I would have imagined,” muttered the child, stunned into immobility.

  


Back in the lab, Flesh Koschei was also undergoing a process very similar to regeneration. The Doctor looked at him, powerless, bitter and sad. They couldn't regenerate anymore. This was their last life. But apparently, something in their DNA had reacted with the virus and the Flesh that this Koschei was made of – and the child was surrounded by the very well known golden light.

It wasn't changing his appearance, not yet. It seemed to heal everything that had been broken during the fights, to mend the dents, and the process appeared incredibly painful. The Doctor wished they could have crawled to him and taken him in their arms and told him everything was going to be alright. But that would have been a lie, and this Doctor refused to lie again.

As for Clara, the hardships she was going through looked much more mundane. She contorted and moaned, grumbled something about beans and a little miss sunshine, but she seemed fine. As fine as she could be.

Alone between their two friends, the Doctor closed their eyes and hoped the Master would return soon.

  


“Well, I guess you're a Gallifreyan now,” said the Master in a very matter-of-fact tone after scanning Flesh Koschei. “One hundred percent pure Gallifreyan.

\- Why didn't it happen to me?” asked Clara.

\- He is... well, was Flesh. Much more malleable. Your human DNA is harder to mess with, believe me, I've tried.

\- Are we gonna ignore the fucking elephant in the room?” cried out Theta, pointing at Original Flavour Koschei.

The latter gave him a very dark glare.

“Elephant yourself, dickhead. I'm a girl now. These things happen. Get over yourself.”

Theta raised his arms in the air and let out a desperate sigh. Seeing his best friend regenerate was difficult in and of itself – but seeing him turn into a young thin woman with the same characteristic blue eyes and brown hair was a bit too much. The fact that he seemed to be the only one fazed by the situation didn't make it any better.

He could feel himself tearing up. His best friend had been abducted and replaced by a clone made of Flesh who was now a full blown Gallifreyan and the original flavour was now a girl and the Doctor had been infected by a virus and Clara too and the Master was the only one remaining almost untouched but he was still dying and he himself had fought a madwoman and lost and she'd taken his friend's daughter and now he didn't know what to do and it wasn't the time to cry and there was no time but -

But Clara took him in her arms and he buried his face in his hands, letting it all out.

  



End file.
